tn[2]As John talked, I thought, perhaps I can help this guy with his problems. Then, I had another thought. Now, I was still not a Christian, not by a long shot, but I had been glancing through the Bible. (To this day, it amazes me how powerful just one verse in the Bible can be.) Anyway, I remembered the verse that says,”Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?” I thought to myself, “how can I help John with his problems, when I have so many issues of my own?.” I couldn’t help anybody until I had my act together and in twenty years on the planet, that hadn’t happened or was likely to happen in the foreseeable future.

The only  other Bible verse that I knew says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you”. Maybe, the reason I was so ill equipped to help my friend, maybe the reason I had so many problems of my own, maybe that reason was because I had simply not asked for help.

As these thoughts tumbled through my brain, I had a revelation. I saw a fork in the road ahead. Turn left, and continue the way I had been going, the path of gullibility where my belief system was as fragile as a spider’s web. Or turn right and ask for help.Turn right and look to Jesus. Turn right into the life of light, and turn from the path of darkness.

While John was watching, I turned right. I turned to Jesus. I felt a  heavy backpack filled with rocks fall from my shoulders and I began to weep. I was born again.